CHRISTMAS just wouldn't be Christmas without a tree – but you can get too much of a good thing. Having tried to sell it, the generous owners of this massive tree are now offering it to anyone who wants it.

CHRISTMAS just wouldn't be Christmas without a tree – but you can get too much of a good thing.

Having tried to sell it, the generous owners of this massive tree are now offering it to anyone who wants it.

The Griffith family, of North Close, Ipswich, has decorated the tree in their front garden with lights for the last 20 years but this year the tree, now a sky scraping monster, is just too big.

Father-of-two Mark Griffith said: "We love Christmas and when we moved here 22 years ago we thought it would be nice to have lights on a tree in the front garden. So we bought and planted a small tree. Then it was about two feet high.

"It just grew and grew. We bought lights for it and then had to buy more sets of lights as the tree got bigger."

"When he was smaller I used to send my son James to the top to put the lights on, rather like sending a child up a chimney. But he is 15 now and he is too big so we had to change the method and use a pole.

"Last year we said the tree will have to go as it is just too big and it was getting dangerous putting the lights on."

It was earlier this month that Mark came up with a novel approach to the evergreen ever-growing problem in the front garden.

The 52-year-old announced to his stunned family that he was going to sell the tree and the whole family was going to be involved.

James, 15, a student at St Joseph's College, said: "I thought it was just one of Dad's crazy ideas. It has been Dad's project. It started out as a bit of a joke. I put it on ebay last week because you can sell anything on there."

But for Mark, a partner in a sheepskin specialist wholesale company, selling the tree was to prove harder than he thought.

He said: "The rest of the family thought I was crazy. I even put a photograph with the advert but I didn't get a single bid. I was really disappointed."

Not to be beaten, Mark advertised the tree in The Evening Star but still had no takers.

He said: "I even offered to cut it to size."

Today Mark is offering the tree to charity.

He said: "If a hospice or charity wants to come and collect it they can. If a commercial organisation wants it they can perhaps give a donation to Children in Need."

Mark's wife Helen, a teacher at Cliff Lane Primary School, said she would be sad to see the tree go.

She said: "It looks beautiful when it has got lights on it. We are going to miss it terribly but we want it to go to somewhere that needs it.

"We will replace it but this time with a slow-growing species."

Even daughter Rebecca, currently studying psychology at Lancaster University, has been involved with the project receiving regular progress reports on the sale of the tree.

Speaking from her student digs the 20-year-old said: "I think Dad is having a bit of a mid-life crisis. I don't think he will be able to sell it.

"I am going to miss the tree it makes my heart beat faster when I drive round the corner and see it lit up."

n Anyone wishing to buy the tree or any charity wishing to have the tree can contact Mark on 01473 255639.

Christmas Tree Trivia

n Christmas trees take an average of 7-10 years to mature.

n The first decorated Christmas was in Riga, Latvia, in 1510.

n In 1846 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were featured in the Illustrated London News standing with their children around a Christmas tree. Trees were immediately fashionable.

n The Norway spruce is the traditional species used to decorate homes in Britain.

n The Norway spruce was a native species in the British Isles before the last Ice Age, and was reintroduced here before the 1500s. It can grow up to 40 metres high.

n Christmas trees in china are called 'trees of light' and are decorated with paper chains, flowers and lanterns.

n In America more than 1 million acres of land have been planted with Christmas trees and 77 million Christmas trees are planted each year.

Source: The internet